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Summary World of the Hero Revision Pack for A Level Classical Civilisation
In depth summaries of Virigl's Aeneid and Homer's Odyssey. Contains a break down through all the books and contains key quotes in bold
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World of the Hero Revision PackThe Aeneid
Book 1 – Storm and Banquet
o Enemy of Aeneas is Juno – her “anger is fierce and unforgetting” – “her
hatred burned in her heart”
o “so heavy was the cost of founding the Roman race”
o Aeolia – King Aeolus of the winds – Juno offers a nymph – he sends the winds
– “Death stared them in the face” – Neptune hears this and brings the winds
to a halt – Aeneas lands in Carthage
o “he showed them the face of hope, and kept his misery with him” – Venus
appears the next morning – “you so often mock your own son”
o Carthaginians characterised as very orderly – “drawing up laws and electing
magistrates” – Dido first spotted in the Temple to Juno and the walls were
painted with the Trojan War e.g. Hector, Priam, Achilles, and Memnon –
Venus lifts the mist making him glow in his youth
o Dido – “Dido was like Diana” – leading Aeneas into the palace in the historic
present makes the passage vivid – good xenia as all the Tyrians + Trojans sit
on embroidered couches – honours the gods pouring a libation but at the end
of the book she is described as “doomed” – the story of Troy begins
o Venus – scheming by getting Cupid so Dido falls in love
Book 2 – The Fall of Troy
o Immediately know the war was filled with “horrors” – “everywhere there
was fear, and death in many forms”
o Laocoon (priest of Apollo) – did not want the horse to be brought in – “I am
afraid of Greeks, even when they bear gifts” – justifying Troy’s loss from a
Trojan perspective – divine fate – killed by snakes who “hissed” with
“blazing” eyes and “black venom” – snake/fire imagery extended
o Sinon – persuades the Trojans to take the horse – “we had never met villainy
on this scale before” as he was reads with “all his Greek arts and
stratagems” – it is now clear that this is not a fair fight
o Hector – “his beard was filthy, his hair matted with blood” – impact of war
o Gods – “you must escape” – will of the Gods for them to leave
o Nature – “south wind carrying fire into a field of grain” – destruction
o Aeneas – “frenzy and anger drove me on and suddenly it seemed a noble
thing to die in battle”
o Greeks portrayed as cowardly for “hiding in the familiar belly” of the horse
o Pyrrhus – “like a snake” on herbs – typical image of fear, foreboding, death,
tension, and concern – contrast to “wailing women and frightened mothers”
– kills Polites after chasing him and “he fell and vomited his life’s blood
before their eyes”
, o Priam had “no escape” – he threw his “harmless spear” before Pyrrhus
dragged Priam across the floor “slithered” through pools of blood – kills him
– we feel sympathy at this shocking death
o Helen is “hated by all” and hiding – women causing strife = negative
characterisation – anger – Venus stops Aeneas killing her – think of Creusa
and Ascanius – forgetting his family!
o Family – Anchises initially refuses – “your first duty is to guard the house”
– pastoral imagery – “lifted up my father and set for the mountains”
o Creusa – “torn from me by the cruelty of Fate” – Aeneas is not a coward for
going back in, responsibility is on her and the gods, not him
o “wind frightened” – Homeric hero
Book 3 – The Wanderings
o Land of Mars – pulled a tree and blood dripped from the earth with gore –
Polydorus is found so they rebury him
o Delos, from the harbour of Ortygia, Naxos – Crete – plague – Hesperia now
Italians – Aeneas was astounded by the words and vision of the Gods
o Harpies – “stench was rank” “screeching” – “blood of my comrades was
congealed with fear”
o Actium – Trojan Games
o Andromache and Helenus – Mini Troy – River Simois – they are helpful to
Aeneas telling him to leave quickly and wear a purple veil to not spoil omens
– avoid Scylla and Charybdis by taking the long way round – gifts of solid
gold and ivory, horses, men, and rowers
o Cyclops’ Island – Achaemenides was part of Odysseus’ crew left behind –
Polyphemus is then spotted so they leave quickly
o Anchises dies – “he had been my support in every difficulty”
Book 4 – Dido
o “love’s deadly wound, feeding with blood, and consumed by its deadly
fire”
o Dido thanks the Gods for the Trojans arriving – ironic – Juno did it
o Dido as the epitome of piety – still sacrificing to Ceres, Apollo and Bacchus –
tragic
o DUTY – she forgets her duty – “the towers she was building ceased to rise”
– he forgets his duty too – “he caught sight of Aeneas laying the
foundations of the citadel” – Mercury needs to remind him “have you
entirely forgotten your own kingdom!” – the men are delighted to receive
the orders that they are leaving
o Cave Scene – “forgetting about their kingdoms and becoming slaves of
lust”
o Dido’s response to them leaving – “she raged and raved like a Bacchant” –
“I have nothing else left but misery” and “I am hated because of you” –
she wishes death on him “I shall follow you in the black fires of death” –
, there is natural and peaceful imagery before Dido’s absolute madness –
building the funeral pyre – “her life passed into the winds” = lack of duty to
her sister, family and her people
o Negative characterisation of women – “women are unstable creatures,
always changing” – “let there be war between the nations forever”
o Aeneas makes it clear that “it was never my intention to be deceitful” “nor
have I ever offered you marriage”
Book 5 – Funeral Games
o Aeneas has a dream of his father, they decide to have funeral games, Achates
and Misenus help organise it, they form an alliance with Latinus who offers
Lavinia in marriage = Turnus not happy, Juno stirs up the other Italian leaders,
the Trojans + allies prepare for war against Turnus and the Rutulians
o Shooting of the arrow that burst into flames
o After the death of Julius Caesar there was a comet and therefore people
thought that this was the deification of him
o "at this a sudden miracle appeared before their eyes, a mighty sign of
what the future held in store"
o Juno and women
"driven at last to madness they began to scream and snatch flames
from the innermost hearths of the encampment or rob altar fires,
hurling blazing branches and brushwood and torches”
"it is the deadly anger of Juno"
"she is still persecuting the dead bones and ashes of the city she
destroyed"
o Palinurus – sleep personified; Poseidon was going to take someone in the deal
"down fell Palinurus, calling again and again for his comrades, but
they did not hear."
"You trusted too much, Palinurus, to a clear sky and a calm sea,
and your body will lie naked on an unknown shore"
Book 6 – The Underworld
o Cumae – place of the Sibyl – “I see deadly wars with torrents of blood”
o Ekphrasis – story on a picture without a text
o Pathetic imagery of a “throng of the dead” rushing out including boys and
unmarried girls
o Fate – “you must cease to hope that the Fates of the god can be altered by
your prayers”
o Aeneas is characterised as brave, heroic, despite the dangers e.g. Cerberus
o Sees Dido and weeps saying it was “against my will” but he turns to panic,
short, sharp, ironic – she turns away to Sychaeus
o Agamemnon, Deiphobus (Priam’s son) “whose face was mutilated” –
literally the negative face of war, Helen is alluded to
o Hell – worst part of the underworld, for criminals – Tisiphone, “men caught
and killed in adultery”
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